A Year of Writing: Days 281-290

Day 281 of #ayearofwriting and I know repetition is a bad thing in writing but the opening line is channeling Laurie Anderson and for some reason it tickles me:

‘I take Sora every Wednesday to the American diner with American food owned by an American’

Day 282 of #ayearofwriting and the art of rejection has somewhat been lost in the age of digital tech. The last editor I met who did it well was Alan Ross of The London Magazine, he would inspire, berate and suggest further reading. Today, in my inbox I received a rejection but instantly warmed to the editor:

‘Thank you for letting me see “Mausu.” The story is nicely done, but I’m afraid it’s not quite right for me. I look forward to your next submission.’

Makes you want to submit again.

Day 283 of #ayearofwriting and the bedroom is plastered and dry. Means I can work in peace again after slotting myself in to small spaces.

Day 285 of #ayearofwriting and up early. Treating Sundays as a chance to plan in my notebook, the house is still in disarray after plastering upstairs and we are waiting on new doors. In amongst the dust and paint cans I work on my phone, in my notebook but rarely on my laptop because I packed it away for safety. The picture is flatbread with tomato and garlic sauce topped with cheese, harking back to a breakfast I once had in Lesvos.

Day 286 of #ayearofwriting and after hundreds of days of scribbling, editing and drafting, an editor who I admire has taken one of my stories for publication. Result! Happy! This is the moment writers cherish.

Day 287 of #ayearofwriting and I am back with Sora and his freak show. It is everything but in name, for Sora and his friends use their creeping disease as a way to alienate and drive away but at the same time entice in. The freak show is an interesting phenomenon on the last two hundred years, to some extent it has become ingrained in our society and how we often look at disability, and then do not look at it, we look for what makes them different, what makes me different and why I should be different. Some days you feel like charging tickets.

Day 288 of #ayearofwriting and today I had my first PhD meeting and got my new glasses. It was good to talk about my ideas, talk books and ideas, and put pen to paper.

Day 289 of #ayearofwriting and in comes Ms Hayashida an anomaly, a siren song, a sexualised disabled person but at first we do not see that, we see the facade, the ghost image of her before the reveal.

Day 290 of #ayearofwriting and I hope you are still with me through thick and thin. I hope you are trying your hand at #100daysofwriting and then take the ultimate step into writing every day. Remember that this is an exercise in not beating yourself up. It is about being a little selfish, a little mad, in saying, ‘I have five minutes, I have quarter of an hour, I have half an hour to sit down and write’. It is not about perfection, it is not about sitting at computer, it is simply the act of writing and that writing may be rough but over a month even at five minutes a time you’ll have committed to over two hours of writing. If you do thirty minutes you will have done nearly sixteen hours of writing and you can knock out a decent short story in that time. If you can even push for one hour that is a day and a morning of writing over the month. Imagine what you can do with any of those moments. From poetry to a novel. You can chip away. Stop beating yourself up, write. Find those spare minutes.